towards
Mary Johnson not a month ago."

"They're liars, I tell you."

"Will you confront them and say that?"

Taken by surprise Sorenson hesitated, flushed, and then made a gesture
of disdain.

"I'll not, because I'll not condescend to answer such baseless
charges," he stated. "I thought you had sense enough not to believe
every little thing you hear. Certainly I expect you not to believe
this, and I know you won't on consideration. Then we'll be married. I
came here to-night to urge you to marry me soon."

"I'll never marry you, and we're no longer engaged. You've acted
faithlessly and dishonorably. You're not the decent man I thought you
were."

"Don't you still love me, Janet?"

"No. I don't think I ever loved you; I was loving a man who didn't
exist, an illusion I imagined to be Ed Sorenson, not your real self.
If I loved at all, which I now doubt! And you never loved me, though
you may think you did and still do. But it's not so; for no man who
really loved a respectable girl could at the same time do what you
did. Think of it! While pretending to love me, you were secretly
trying to inveigle that poor ignorant girl away from home. You're not
a man; you're a beast. The shame and disgust and humiliation I suffer
at the thought of my position during that time, your effort to
hoodwink both Mary Johnson and me, so fills me with anger I can't talk
to you. Go, go! And please don't even speak to me hereafter, on the
street or anywhere else."

Instead of departing the man grasped her wrist and gave her a venomous
look.

"It was this sneak of an engineer, after all, who told you this lie
and turned you against me," he snarled.

"Let me go. Mr. Weir said nothing. It was you yourself who betrayed
yourself, or I should not have known as I do, thank heavens. Stop
holding my wrist!"

For an instant Sorenson wavered between whether he should obey her
command or strike her as his rage prompted. A very devil of passion
beating in his breast urged him to show her her place, deal with her
as he would like to do and as she deserved--throw her down and drag
her by the hair until she crawled forward and clasped his knees in
subjection. But the look in her eyes cooled this half-insane,
whiskey-inspired desire.

He took his hand off her wrist, picked up his hat.

"You can't throw me down this way," he sneered. "You're going to marry
me just the same, whether you think so or not. I have a voice in this
engagement, and